Quick Hits: Analytics, Reds, Phillies, Sano

Now that the Cardinals/Astros data breach scandal has seemingly come to an end, The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh contacted several sources in various organizational jobs around baseball to ask how various teams protect their proprietary data and intellectual property. This extends not just to hacking and other illegal accessing of a team’s information, but also what happens when a front office member with knowledge of certain processes and information simply leaves for a job with another franchise. The piece is a very interesting look inside the purposely-secretive world of analytics departments and is well worth a full read. Here’s some more from around baseball….

While Devin Mesoraco’s health is still a big question mark, Reds GM Dick Williams tells MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon that the team isn’t planning to add a veteran catcher on a minor league deal. “I don’t see any major signing there. We’ll just have to see how [Mesoraco] responds and whether or not we have enough guys to cover the issues.” Behind Mesoraco, Tucker Barnhart and Rule 5 pick Stuart Turner are the top catching options on Cincinnati’s depth chart.

Williams also provided updates on Desmond Jennings and Bronson Arroyo, who are both reportedly on the verge of signing minor league deals with the Reds. Jennings’ deal is “close” to being done, Williams said, while Arroyo’s deal has been worked out “will take a couple of days to get that physically signed.”

The Phillies have made some solid offensive upgrades, as David Murphy of the Philadelphia Inquirer feels the additions of Howie Kendrick, Michael Saunders and Chris Coghlan give the Phils “a fighting chance at fielding a middle-of-the-pack offense this season.” There’s really nowhere to go but up for the Phillies (who scored the fewest runs in baseball in 2016) but they did add some lineup versatility and veteran experience, and they retained flexibility in their rebuilding process since none of the trio are guaranteed beyond 2017.

Miguel Sano’s ability to play third base is key to the Twins’ future plans, ESPN’s Buster Olney writes (subscription required). After an ill-advised experiment as a right fielder last year, Sano is back at the hot corner, where he has displayed roughly average glovework (3.9 UZR/150, minus-3 Defensive Runs Saved) in a brief sample size of 453 innings. According to Olney, some in the previous Twins front office felt moving Sano into a primary DH role so early in his career could be a detriment to his conditioning and lower his overall value as a player.

Comments

A full season of Tommy Joseph,instead of a half a season of Ryan Howard.Kendrick instead of Bourjos.Saunders instead of a 200 hitting Altherr.a rebound year from Franco.Altherr on the bench instead of Cedric Hunter,so in turn,a rebound from him to a 250 ba would be a big improvement.possible,if not probable callups of Crawford and Williams.

Gotta remember the difference between what we did in the 1st half,when Bourjos was hitting,compared to the 2nd half,when nobody besides Herrera and Hernandez was hitting.

But other then the 15 game callup last year,hes never played above aa.with Herrera,Hernandez and Kendrick hitting in the top 3 spots,we could have him getting 3 at bats hitting in the bottom of our lineup,or we could have him hitting in 1 of the top 2 spots in lehigh.and he struck out 19 times in 57 at bats last year,he could use a little seasoning before coming up for regular duty.

Every time Quinn is put in the lineup for any length of time he injures himself. Even if he doesn’t I can’t see him as anymore than a Ben Revere clone, something this lineup doesn’t need in a made for home run ballpark..
If Coghlan is anymore than a pinch hit, late inning defensive replacement type then this offense more than likely stinks.

I think not having Howard alone will improve us.Kendrick coming off a career worst season is iffy,but Saunders producing the way he did the 1st half of last season,i think we could definitely jump up alot.and him hitting in citizens bank,its certainly a possibility.

Herrera-Hernandez-Kendrick-Franco-Saunders-Joseph-Rupp-Galvis.

Say im deluding myself all ya want,but i think thats a pretty decent lineup.then at some point Crawford takes over at ss,and the potential grows.

You are again just looking at it through rose colored glasses. Yeah, losing howard helps, and if everyone plays well, that helps. I can say that about every single team in baseball.

The phils were dead last in wRC+. 30/30. you’re looking at them needing to jump about 15 teams if you want them to be a middle of the pack offense in mlb and 7 if you want that in NL only. So yes, I think you are deluding yourself if you think the kind of changes that have been made are enough to change their production that much.

But yea,you could say that about all teams.but most teams arent developing.adding 2 professional veterans,not only to the lineup,but to get into the young players ears,will improve every spot in the lineup.

So if everything goes 99% percentile outcome and everyone does well and no one regresses, they can be middle of the pack. Yeah, great topic to write a story about. You know how many teams could be X offense or Y pitching staff or heck even a Z win team if everyone only looks at positive possible outcomes for stuff?

And the reason the phils were good in the first half was pitching and luck. There is a reason no one was surprised when they fell off a cliff.

With a line-up of Hernandez, Galvis, Franco, Saunders, Joseph, Rupp, Kendrick, and Odubel/Coghlan….I could definitely see some improvement there, some from the additions of Saunders and Kendrick, but mainly the improvement in their offense should come from players taking a step forward.

To say their offense will improve from the worst to being in the middle of the pack, I think is the VERY best case scenario for the Phils..Most like they will make some improvements, but they will still end up as one of the worst offenses in baseball…If I had to take a guess, I would say realistically, they will still finish around 25th-26th in the league.

“A fighting chance at fielding a middle-of-the-pack offense this season.” doesn’t imply that they WILL be in the middle of the pack.. It implies that it’s within the realm of possibility, which it is, and given the word used (fight) it further implies that it won’t be easy.

Yeah except nitpicking an article for saying a team has a chance at being average when the words explicitly state its intent is just as ignorant as your comment denuding my original post if you decide to throw in teams which are favored not only to make the playoffs but to win the WS. We can both agree that the newsworthiness of this isn’t grandiose but it’s also Feb. 7th. We’re all dying of thirst over here and baseball is coming.

so it’s ok to just spit out crap stories based on fantasy outcomes with click baity titles and for some reason those articles should be free from disagreement because they hide behind a vale of ambiguity? Gotcha…

You can write the same story about their offense without the click baity headline by simply explaining that it is a rough year ahead for their offense, but they have added some veterans to help the young players and offer versatility to their lineup or something of that sort. And add something about how you hope that the younger players rebound/step forward/continue development through the 2017 season as they make strides to field a more competitive and legitimate offense moving forward.

But yeah, you’re right, saying they have a fighting chance to be middle of the pack based on the fact that it is “within the realm of possibilities” is acceptable because it is Feb and we should just ignore how crazy unrealistic it is and not point out that the addition of 3 very bleh offensive players has little chance of actually improving one of the worst offensive teams in baseball to a middle of the pack team…

That’s the thing, if you read his article it makes even less sense. This is from that article:

“Coghlan is awful against lefties: over the last two seasons, he is 8-for-68 with 17 strikeouts and nine walks in 79 plate appearances against them. He wasn’t great against righties either last season, but for his career he owns a respectable .268/.341/.424 line against them.”